Cotton extracting and cleaning machine.



'1. E. MITCHELL.

COTTON EXTRACHNG AND CLEANING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 23, 1912.

' 1,166,072, Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

v 2 SHEETS-SHEET l. Y''UQQ-,

I. E. MITCHELL. COTTON EXTRACTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.

' APPLICATION FILEI) DEC.23, |912. I,L66?2 42 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented Dec. 28) 1915.

I I l I f7 gi; 'I IH 'y' C:

A wg @Mw M r 'lili different mechanism,

l'rl'lwa o JOHN E. MITCHELL, 0F ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

COTTON EXTRACTING AND CLEANING MACHINE.

Applicationl led December 23, 191^4 To all whom t may concern y Be it known that I, JOHN E. MITCHELL, a citizen of the United States, residing inthe city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented new and useful Improvements in Cotton Extracting and Cleaning Machines, of which the following is a'specication.

This invention relates to'cotton extracting and cleaning machines, and has for its object improvements in the machine heretofore patented to me, No. 1,030,913, dated July 2nd,1912. 4

The present invention is, in effect, a continuation of an application filed of even date herewith wherein I disclose the idea of forcibly projecting cotton at the bottom of a hull board into contact with a saw cylinder, and illustrate a vibratory hull board as a means of acccomplishing such object. In the present invention the same principle of operation is retained, but is carried out by and in addition to the provision of the mechanism for bringing the cotton into contact with the saw cylinder means are provided for preventing the fall of the cotton over the lower edge of the hull board without coming in contact with the saws.

In common with the purpose of my companion application the present invention has for its object to provide a machine which will rapidly and efiiciently separate the broken hulls and refuse from cotton after the raw material, including unopened bolls, has passed through crushing and feeding mechanism, and to this end the invention comprises a pivoted hull board, the lower end of which regulates the size of an opening for the escape of hull particles past the saw cylinder, with means for reciprocating the lower end of the hull board toward and from the saw cylinder, and withy means, such as rows of saw teeth on the lower end-portion of the hull board, for engaging cotton particles and preventing them from passing by the hull board before being brought into contact with the saw cylinder. y

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of a machine constructed according to my invention, suiicient of the driving mechanism being illustrated to render the operation clear; Fig. 2 is a central cross sectional view of the same; and Fig. 3 is a broken plan view showing a portion of the hull board and saw cylinder.

Referring now to these drawings, l indi- Specification of Letters Patent.

v crushing roll Patented lDcc. 28, 1915. Serial N o. 733,155.

Cates the casing of the machine and 2 a pair of feed rolls, mounted on shafts 3, and revolving toward each other, as indicated by the arrows. Each of these rolls is provided around its circumference with longitudinally-extending channel bars 4 which form gripping surfaces to engage the cotton and force it down into the machine.

The numeral 5 indicates the combined feeding and boll crushing cylinder, which is mounted on a shaft 6 and revolves in the direction indicated bythe arrows. Partially surrounding the lower side of this cylinder is a screen 7 secured at its ends to cross bars 8 and being preferably provided with several flat faces, as indicated at 9. The cylinder 5 is provided with pivoted beater arms 10 which coperate with the flat sides of the screen 7 to crush and disintegrate the bolls. The numeral 11 indicates the saw cylinder, 12 the pod expeller and 13 the doiiier-brush, all of these parts being substantially the same as illustrated in my patent before mentioned, and not requiring. therefore, further description. Mounted above and slightly to one side of the pod expeller is a supplemental crushing roll 14, which may be of the same size and construction as the feed rolls 2 and pod expeller 12, and is mounted to rotate with its channel bars in sufficiently close proximity with those of the pod expeller to prevent the passage of any Amaterial between them. Extending from side to side of the machine, and mounted in the ends thereof, is a central bar 15 which I term a guard, the said guard being located substantially in the same horizontal plane as the axis of the pod expeller 12, and being located sufiiciently close to the crushing roll 14 that any pods or bolls passing between the guard and said will be crushed by the channel bars 16 thereof. The uncrushed bolls which may enter the agitating chamber 17 will be engaged by the teeth of the saws and thrown upward; and while this action may be repeated a number of times, the bolls will sooner or later pass upward into the space between the pod expeller 12 and the guard 15, and through the action of the crushing roll 14 will vbe forced against said guard and thereby crushed, after which they will fall back into the' agitating chamber to be `again acted on by the saws. The crushing roll 14 and guard l5 not only serve to crush bolls, but they likewise will break up larger pieces of hull so that all of the hulls are broken up llf into suiciently small pieces to permit them to readily pass through the opening between the lower end of the hull board and the saw cylinder later referred to.

The numeral 18 indicates the hull board which is pivoted at its upper end by means of a rod 19 mounted in the ends of the casing 1. Secured on one end of the rod 19 is an arm :20, the lower end of which is slotted,

as indicated at 21, to receive a pin 22 on the end of an eccentric bar 23, the other end of said bar being mounted on an eccentric 2-1 on the saw cylinder shaft The lower end of the hull board 18no1'mally extends some distance below the horizontal center of the saw cylinder 11 and as the saw cylinder revolves the hull board is caused to be reciprocated by the mechanism described so that its lower end is reciprocated toward and from the saw cylinder. The hull board 18 is of the same length as the saw cylinder, and is provided at its lower end with a series of toothed blades 26 extending from end to end of the hull board and preferably spaced at such distances apart that they will alternate with the saws of the saw cylinder, as shown in Fig. 3, although this precise arrangement is not essential, and the blades could be arranged opposite the saws if desired. The blades 26 are preferably inserted in kerfs cut in the lower end of the hull board 18 and retained therein by an iron strap, or the like, 26a. The teeth 27 of these blades are directed upward and toward the saw cylinder, andin the operation of the machine they act to restrain the fall of pieces of cotton through the opening 28 between the hull board and the saw cylinder whereby in the reciprocation of the hull board said cotton particles will be brought into contact with the saws and be cal'ried upward thereby. At the same time the teeth 27 are not large enough to prevent the ready escape of hull particles through the opening 28.

The supplemental crushing mechanism comprising the crushing roll 14 and guard 15 is fully described and claimed in my companion application before mentioned, and

the operation thereof need not be set forth more in detail herein. l

The direction of rotation of the various rotary members of the machine are indicated by the arrows adjacent thereto, and' as the driving mechanism is of the usual or any preferred construction it is not deemed necessary to describe the same in detail.

The operation lof the machine in its entirety will have been gathered from the foregoing description; it only remains to add that as the hull board is reciprocated the cotton particles at the bottom thereof, which have been prevented from falling out of the agitating chamber by the teeth 27 at the lower end of the hull board, are projected, or thrown outward, against the saw` cylinder by the reciprocation of the hull board and carried up by the saws, while the particles of hull fall through the opening Q8.

, I claim:

1. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylinder,v a hull board coperating directly therewith and the lower end of which regulates the discharge of hull particles through an opening past the saw cylinder, and cotton detaining members mounted on the lower end-portion of said hull board.

2. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a. saw cylinder, a hull board pivotally mounted at its upper end, and having its lower end positioned to regulate the size of an opening past the saw cylinder', a series of cotton detaining members provided on the lower end-portion of said hull board and extending throughout the length thereof, and means for reciprocating the lower end of said hull board toward and from the saw cylinder to project the cotton against the latter.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN E. MITCHELL.

Witnesses:

BRUCE S. ELLIOTT, STELLA HILL. 

